Parl winter session: 39-member House panel set up to scrutinise ONOE Bills

On the last day of the Winter Session of Parliament on Friday, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adopted resolutions setting up a 39-member joint committee to examine the two Bills proposing simultaneous elections, or “One Nation, One Election” (ONOE).

 

The government decided to increase the committee's strength from 31 to 39 as several political parties expressed the desire to be part of the exercise to scrutinise the Bills. The committee will have 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha.

 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Lok Sabha member Bhratruhari Mahtab is tipped to be the chairman of the joint committee on ONOE Bills. Some other BJP MPs on the committee are Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, P P Chaudhary, Bansuri Swaraj, and Sambit Patra. Congress nominated Manish Tewari and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its representatives on the committee.

 

 

"The government agreed that the matter is very important and it relates to the reformation of the election process of our country. So, we agreed to include most of the prominent political parties," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters later. He said there was no limit to the size of the Joint Committee of Parliament and pointed out that one parliamentary panel examining Centre-state relations had 51 members.

 

Among the 39 members of the Committee, 16 are from the BJP, five from the Congress, two each from SP, TMC and DMK, and one each from the Shiv Sena, TDP, JD(U), RLD, LJSP(RV), JSP, Shiv Sena-UBT, NCP-SP, CPI(M), AAP, BJD and the YSRCP.

 

According to PRS Legislative Research, a think tank that studies India’s legislatures, the Lok Sabha functioned for 52 per cent of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha for 39 per cent of its scheduled time during the Winter Session.

 

The session witnessed frequent disruptions over issues such as Congress’ demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani group, BJP’s allegations that the Congress leadership has “links” with investor George Soros, and on Union Home Minster Amit Shah's remarks on the architect of India’s Constitution, BR Ambedkar.

 

The highlight of the session was the debate on the 75 years of India’s Constitution, which the two Houses discussed for a cumulative 33 hours. According PRS, Question Hour did not function for more than 10 minutes on 12 out of 20 days in the Lok Sabha. While several notices for adjournment motions were received in the Lok Sabha, none was accepted.

 

Both Houses were adjourned without transacting any substantial business on the last day of the session amid Opposition protests. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla warned members of action if any of them resorted to demonstrations and protests within the premises of Parliament.

 

The directions from the Speaker came after Parliament premises witnessed large-scale protests by both the Opposition and Treasury members on the issue of alleged insult to Ambedkar. "Do not resort to demonstration or protest at any gate or anywhere on Parliament premises. Else, the House will have to take serious action," Birla said in the House on Friday.